University Of Utah

Kentucky is the bluest of the basketball bluebloods, but not this bunch. They weren't born to royalty. They came from nothing, some of them, and together these Wildcats fought from behind like no team ever had to win Kentucky's seventh national championship, beating Utah, 78-69, in front of 40,509 Monday night at the Alamodome. It was Kentucky's second national title in three years, but its least expected.

FIRST ROUND * Kentucky 82, South Carolina State 67--Wildcats shot 59.6% and were led by center Nazr Mohammed's 18 points in an easy first-round victory. SECOND ROUND * Kentucky 88, Saint Louis 61--The Wildcats went on a 19-0 run late in the first half to take a commanding 46-18 lead at halftime. REGIONAL SEMIFINAL * Kentucky 94, UCLA 68--Wildcats jumped out to an 11-2 lead and never looked back, blocking 14 Bruin shots and holding UCLA to 29.1% shooting.

North Carolina center Makhtar Ndiaye has recanted his claim that Utah's Britton Johnsen used a racial epithet during Utah's NCAA semifinal victory, issuing a statement through the school and adding that he has sent Johnsen an apology for falsely accusing him. "During the game, Britt Johnsen and I were doing trash-talking face to face, which was not right, but I did not spit on him nor did he use the N-word to me," said Ndiaye, a senior.

Nice of CBS to throw in a little basketball among all those commercials. Good game, good announcing, good camera work, but there was just one commercial after another during Monday night's NCAA championship game. Too bad the stuffed shirts at the NCAA don't think like the stuffed shirts at Augusta National. When CBS televises the Masters in less than two weeks, it will be allowed only four minutes of commercials per hour, and there are only two sponsors.

The issue of race has intruded into an otherwise idyllic Final Four after a black player from North Carolina accused a white player from Utah of using a racial epithet during Saturday's 65-59 upset victory by the Utes. Britton Johnsen, freshman Utah forward, vehemently denied that he slurred Senegalese North Carolina center Makhtar Ndiaye, who charged that Johnsen used, "The n-word at me. He used it more than once . . . He said it to me the whole game, every time we got into contact."